Crossing the Rubicon
by Grumbles
Summary: A collection of short stories, not all of them crossovers. #3. I was bored.
1. Chapter 1

As this is the first chapter, and thusly deserves a disclaimer, I'll remind all of you that this isn't going to be some kind of megal33t update-every-hour thing. During the downtime of writing Ultimate Danny Phantom, making web comics, and working, I get flooded by super-awesome ideas that I have no way of expressing because I'm so busy otherwise. I usually vent my frustration over this by slaughtering zombies in _Dead Rising_.

One of these "drabbles", as you all like to call them, forced itself out of my head and into the form you may recognize as my story Iron Man. Well the pool has flooded since then and I need to get these ideas out to make room for UDP chapters.

This is a fan fiction site, and neither you nor I should have to type this because we know it already. But I'll keep the time-honored tradition strong. I do not own Danny Phantom or any characters affiliated with Danny Phantom. Danny Phantom is the creation of Butch Hartman and is owned by the suits at Viacom, who own basically everything you watch on TV. Every other "fandom" featured in this collection belongs to whoever owns it and was created by whoever created it. The only things I own are toys and video games.

These will vary in rating, I guess. I really don't know. You should all be old enough to handle the amount of violence (or other maturer content) in any of the series that appear here.

* * *

_Now, without further ado, Grumbles presents_

**CROSSING THE RUBICON:  
**_A Collection of Danny Phantom Crossovers_

* * *

**#1 - _Gojira!  
_**_Danny has an out-of-the-ordinary encounter while in the Land of the Rising Sun_****

Danny Fenton ducked for cover as the building before him exploded in a blue fireball and sent debris raining down upon him. He turned with the crowds as they hastily wove through the streets, nimbly avoiding obstacles and generally staying out of harm's way. It impressed him how organized the panic was; how calmly the denizens of this seemingly peaceful place fled in unbridled horror. This place of wonder and ancient majesty was a paradox, and Danny hoped he would live long enough to figure it out.

Another earsplitting wail tore through the sky and the crowd surrounding Danny ducked instinctively. The fourteen-year-old followed suit, and saw another streak of blue light sear through the air overhead. The mob didn't slow; they continued at the same steady rate, only hunched closer to the ground.

The human beings moved like a river. A predetermined destination waited for them like the lake at the end of the stream. The water was unpredictable, chaotic, unruly, but at the same time, there was a rhythm to it, like a sort of abstract beauty Danny was only now coming to appreciate. The occasional fleeing man or woman would stumble or trip, disrupting the flow and making a break in the otherwise seamless continuum. But it would mend, just like the river, and continue on like nothing had happened.

Danny felt like a leaf in this river. He was out of place, both ethnically and circumstantially. He was only following this river because he had no choice – there was nowhere else to go. He knew the end of this chain of humans would yield safety, but he still didn't like to depend on them. Whatever was attacking this city, he knew he could take it. He'd beaten the ghost king, hadn't he? Maybe that was different. He had saved all reality, but then that was completely unrelated. Facing his evil future self was no walk through the metaphorical park, but still, he didn't grow up to be some kind of mythological beast in that alternate timeline.

Finally, Danny saw his break. The crowd was turning again around another building. The windows of one of the towering skyscrapers had all been blown out, probably from one of the explosions, and it would be easy for him to slip inside, like a leaf deviating from the course of the river and flowing into the genuine peace and serenity of a small pond. He maneuvered himself to the edge of the crowd and was about to make a daring leap for the safety and darkness of the abandoned complex when the river came to a complete halt. Danny looked up and completely forgot what he had been about to do.

Standing at least a football field's length away was what Danny could only describe as a monster. If the word "kaiju" that the people around him were screaming meant anything, he guessed it had a similar meaning. The beast stood impossibly tall on its two golden legs. The torso of the monster rippled with alien muscle as it took several steps forward on its clawed feet. Three horned heads snaked in all directions on long, serpentine necks, searching for its prey. Each one seemed to operate individually, even though they were attached to the same body. The beast's wings were folded up against its body, resting from what was likely a long flight from wherever it had come from.

Only the center head appeared to regard the humans standing before it, and even then that head regarded them like ants. Danny stared into the eyes of the golden monster, transfixed in a state of hypnosis as if he was staring into the eyes of a wrathful god. The monster locked eyes with him, staring into the deepest recesses of his soul, and jerked back after a moment. The crowd was busy fleeing in the opposite direction, still exhibiting the same harmonic undulation, and they didn't notice that the other two heads snapped around to look at the teenage boy.

Danny Fenton had locked eyes with the malevolent King Ghidorah, and the monster god had assessed the boy as a _threat_. Danny couldn't find the strength to move, even after the last of the crowd had left him behind. His legs trembled as the kaiju took its first thunderous steps forward, rocking the very Earth with its awesome power. Danny's throat went dry and a terror that went beyond flight-or-fight instinct gripped every fiber of his being and refused to let go.

Each passing second brought the beast closer and closer, and Danny was still unable to twitch in a safe direction. He didn't try to fool himself; there was nowhere on Earth he could hide from this creature. Finally, the monster halted its advance and brought its middle head down to observe its prey. The face of death itself stopped a pencil's length away from his face. The eyes of death itself darted from one of Danny's eyes to the other. The nose of death itself twitched slightly as it took in the scent of the human/ghost hybrid. The mouth of death itself opened wide, and the tongue of death itself slithered out to embrace the child in eternal sleep.

But while Ghidorah might have been seen as a god among monsters, he still wasn't the king of them. Another roar, _another_ monster, saved Danny from becoming food for the triple headed dragon. The roar shattered windows, shook the ground, and released Danny from his paralyzing fear. He fell to his knees, breathing quickly after realizing he had been holding his breath. The golden dragon reared back and screeched its own battle cry from its three heads.

Danny chanced a glimpse over his shoulder and nearly succumbed to the shock that threatened to shut his body down. A monster born of man's ignorance; returned from the dead to punish his creators for meddling with that which they did not understand, the manifestation of the raw power of nuclear energy, the last member of his species, and the only thing that now stood between Danny and King Ghidorah.

The beast swiveled sideways to assess the human that his dragon nemesis had gone out of his way to attempt to devour. With a grunt of indifference, the hulking bipedal reptile turned back to face his foe. The saurian mutation tossed his head back and roared into the heavens, alerting all of creation that there was about to be a scuffle that would scar the very planet. Tokyo would, again, suffer the wrath of these kaiju. Danny watched in a primal fascination as the opponents sized each other up, taking part in a ritual that had lasted for eons.

With one last warning cry from the monster king, Danny saw his dorsal spikes light up with a familiar shade of powerful, glowing blue energy. The energy sizzled and crackled along the bony plates as it traveled up the monster's spine before being let loose from the beast's mouth. The one beast that could aim and project the power of an atomic bomb attacked his foe, and Danny gave into the instincts that had been hollering at him for the past ten minutes.

_He ran._

* * *

Newspapers had said the damage was catastrophic, but Tokyo had suffered worse. Reconstruction efforts were already well underway, and casualties from the monsters' rampage were reduced to a new record low. Danny was hailed as a legend back home in Amity Park. He was the only child to have ever gotten so close to a monster, let alone two. He had looked King Ghidorah right in the mouth and lived to tell the tale. But even better than that, the other monster had intervened and had saved his life. He knew that wasn't the beast's intention, but Danny Fenton thought he had seen something in those piercing eyes; something beyond a mere monster. No, Danny had surely come face to face with gods on that day. And he had been saved by their champion. And besides, how many kids ever got to meet Godzilla, the King of the Monsters?


	2. Chapter 2

**CROSSING THE RUBICON:  
**_A Collection of Danny Phantom Crossovers_

* * *

**_#2 - 117  
_**_Danny allies with a future hero to save the galaxy._

Daniel had seen gorillas up close before. He'd nearly been mauled by a long extinct purple back specimen when a certain someone had let it out of its cage. Normally, the thoughts of his adventures way back in the beginning of it all would bring him sadness, but as he stared into the face of this simian aggressor, sadness was repressed by apprehension. In fact, all of his emotions had been overwhelmed by the gnawing sense of fear that had been building up inside him ever since this conflict began.

At first, he'd managed to avoid confrontation. As a ghost, he certainly wasn't in any danger of being drafted. The current governing powers, whatever they were calling themselves now, had attempted to make contact with the ghost man. They soon found out that Danny Phantom was not particularly fond of the way they were running the planet, or the other planets they owned. He refused to fight for them.

But that was back when Phantom assumed the conflicts in the outer colonies were simply that; conflicts; misunderstandings between the human race and an intelligent form of alien life. It soon became apparent that this was not going to be a small scuffle. Planets were consumed with vengeful fire by an alien brotherhood sworn to annihilate the human race. One planet led to two, two to four, four to eight, until humanity found its imminent destruction standing on its doorstep. Humanity was tired by then, but as these aliens had anticipated, an animal is much more ferocious when there are no more places to run. Dan Phantom was not going down without a fight.

The brute didn't see Phantom's ghost ray slice through his abdomen, but he didn't really need to in order to feel the pain. It howled in agony as the ghost let twin beams of energy explode from his eyes and slam into the alien's face. Hair and flesh sizzled and evaporated before the powerful beams punctured the skull and fried its brain. The now-dead brute toppled over backwards, dropping its grenade launching brute shot in the process.

"Wow!" one of the marines in Phantom's company exclaimed after witnessing the spectacle. "That was something else!"

"There's plenty more where that came from," Phantom mumbled. He spat on the brute's lifeless corpse and floated on, leading his marines with him.

"So sir," the marine spoke again. "Where exactly did you pick up those ghost powers?"

Phantom grinned. "Back when I was fourteen years old, my parents built an interdimensional portal in order to study a realm known as the Ghost Zone."

"Did it work?" the man asked.

"I'm living proof that it did," Phantom replied softly. "I turned it on while I was inside of it. Maybe not the smartest idea, but hey, can't argue with the results."

"So where are your parents?" another marine asked. "Do they still have this portal?"

"My parents are buried in Amity Park's cemetery, so no; I don't believe they have the portal anymore."

"I . . . I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Wasn't your fault," Phantom stopped and held up a fist, silently ordering the other marines to do the same. A phantom dropship, a bulbous purple flying transport, soared through the air overhead. Once its distinct sound had faded, Phantom continued onward. "When they died, I destroyed the portal."

"Why?"

"Long story, kid," Phantom mumbled as they continued on. "Really long story . . ."

"Kid?" the marine in question asked accusingly. "You can't be much older than me, when were you born?"

Phantom turned to face the marine, a devious grin splayed on his face. "April third, 1990."

The entire company of marines stopped dead in their tracks. "What?"

"Impossible!"

"There's no way-"

"Then that makes you-"

"Five hundred sixty three years old," Phantom confirmed. "And still going strong."

"But how?"

"No idea, and to be perfectly honest, I could live to be a thousand years old and wouldn't bat an eyelash if I never found out."

"Phantom, this is the Master Chief, do you copy?"

Phantom pressed his finger to his ear-mounted headset. "I copy, go ahead sir."

"Commander Keyes thinks the Covenant is digging for something in Voi."

"Do they know for sure?"

There was a pause from the Master Chief's line. "Can't confirm, but whatever they're doing, they've definitely made a mess of things."

Phantom sighed and pushed his gloved hand through his hair. The once unruly mop had been shorn off in favor of a bald head at Phantom's request, but it was already starting to come back in full force. "My team is moving in on the Sergeant Major's position. Can they send a Pelican to pick us up?"

"I'd sure as hell hope so," was the Chief's reply.

"Why do you say that?"

"That's where're headed now."

Phantom looked up the steadily climbing ridge and saw two distinct figures standing firmly at the top.

"We'll hold the line here, sir," one marine announced. "You go on ahead."

Phantom nodded and propelled himself through the air. The Master Chief, the legendary SPARTAN warrior, and the Arbiter, the leader of the now-friendly Elite forces, waited for him. It was an honor, a privilege, to fight by their side. It was like something out of a dream, what was happening.

Long ago, he would capture simple ghouls inside a thermos, accompanied by his two best friends. He would go home to a loving family at the end of each day; an overbearing and protective yet loving sister and two workaholic parents who did their best to divide their time between ghosts and their family.

Long ago, he saved the world by himself. He battled against impossibly powerful enemies, using powers he didn't even understand. He protected his town from all sorts of villainous fiends, from ghosts to humans and sometimes beings that were a little of both.

Long ago he had felt the tender caress of love embrace him. He had fallen for his best friend, Samantha, after the umpteenth-some-odd time he had saved the world. They had loved like some can only dream. His family was happy, content, and safe.

But long ago, his parents succumbed to the onslaught of time. Their old age finally caught up with them, pulling them from their work and, eventually, from life itself. Madeline and Jack Fenton passed on together, hand in hand, eyes gleaming with eagerness and anticipation of what the afterlife would be like; the Ghost Zone for them, or something . . . more? Part of Danny had died that day.

Long ago, his sister had passed on as well. Her husband, whose name failed Danny at the moment, left the physical realm shortly thereafter. Danny had sat in silence, listening to Jazz Fenton tell him how proud she was of him. She truly loved her brother, and her love remained on her face in the form of a smile. Another part of Danny had died that day.

Tucker Foley had fallen out of contact shortly after Danny had entered some university or college or something of that nature. The African American boy was his best friend, the one person Danny could share everything with. The ghost boy had tried to reestablish contact countless times, but he never reached Tucker. When Danny heard his friend was dead several decades later, the hybrid felt a searing pain in his heart over what he had lost. Part of him had died that day as well.

Samantha Manson, his loving wife, was the straw that broke the camel's back. So long had he been oblivious to her affection that it made him embarrassed to think about it. When they finally became romantically involved, it felt as though a dam had broken inside the ghost teen. His life was full of compassion, romance, love, care, and everything else that the seemingly perfect life was made from. But his condition is what eventually led to her demise. Ectoplasmic contamination was what the doctors had confirmed killed her. The couple was well into their eighties, but Danny didn't look a day older than eighteen. The years of closeness, the conception of Danny's children, every sexual act, even a simple kiss, filled the apple of his eye with his life-taking essence. She had gone quietly into the night, "I will always love you," escaped her lips before they came together for the last time. The last part of Danny Fenton that could die did die.

Whether it was emotional pain and suffering that did it or something else, Phantom was never able to revert from ghost form from that day on. He nearly succeeded several times, but the death of his children as they surpassed him in aging, and the deaths of every last person he ever knew, solidified his fate. Ghost he was, and ghost he would remain. Danny Fenton, the only thing that tethered Phantom to his distant past, was truly dead.

It was the ultimate curse to his gift. Eternal life would bring about eternal suffering as well. As he neared the top of the hill, Phantom grinned. If this battle, or any battle that followed, struck the final blow, he would welcome it with open arms. But for now, he had a job to do.

"See how they bait their trap?" the Arbiter pointed to an abandoned building where a brute violently shoved Sergeant Avery Johnson inside. "I will help you spring it."

Phantom's green eyes flashed with an ethereal light. "And spring it we shall."


	3. Chapter 3

"I could do this all day. And I think I will!"

Danny continued to bounce back and forth, crashing into the bell over and over again. Clockwork watched with a morbid grin on his face. Tucker looked on from below, the only one of the three children who was wearing a Time Medallion. Clockwork thought about the implications of the medallions and exactly how they worked.

By wearing a medallion, one was protected by any temporal meddling Clockwork could do. And when wearing a medallion, you could safely remain in a time period such as the future. But if you took it off, you returned to your own time. Even though you didn't return in the exact same spot you left in the past or future, which is why – once they began their future adventure – Sam and Tucker would remove their Time Medallions in front of the Fenton residence in the future and return to their own time in an alley next to the Nasty Burger.

Perhaps the medallions had a special quality about them that took the wearer to a critical chronological event? It was true that Sam and Tucker would both die in the Nasty Burger explosion in evil Danny's timeline, so maybe the medallions offered the wearers a chance to alter an unfavorable event so that the future would be better for them. Yes, that made sense. Well, not really.

But if that indeed was the case, then a new mystery arises. When Danny tries to take off his Time Medallion, his evil future self stops him, rips the medallion off, and intangibly fuses the device inside the boy. Later, Evil Danny holds a medallion and it takes him into the past so he can make sure the events that gave birth to him occur. But wouldn't the medallion have taken Evil Danny back in time the moment he ripped it from Good Danny's neck? He was holding it then, but he was also holding Good Danny up by the arm. Perhaps, by still remaining in contact with the original wearer (although indirectly: Medallion – Dark Danny – Good Danny) the medallion did not transport Evil Danny to the past. Later, however, Evil Danny revealed that he had been holding one behind his back for the duration of his several-minute long monologue before throwing Good Danny into the future Ghost Zone. How was he able to remain in his own time whilst holding the medallion? Perhaps he used his incredibly advanced powers to negate the energy from the medallion until he wanted to use it. That sounded logical. Well, not really.

Here's the confusing part. Danny wakes up in the future Ghost Zone. Apparently, the only thing that is different is that, in the future, there's a giant, hairy, red ghost crab that we've never seen in Good Danny's present. He fights the crippled, overweight, elderly (or in some cases, godly-powerful and upgraded) versions of his former foes and still manages to kick their collective asses. He finds old, crazy Vlad, who decides to kill Danny to prevent the future from happening. We don't know what happened in the cave, Danny was crying because Vlad scratched him with glowing metal bear claws or something. What a baby. At any rate, sometime between that scene change and Danny's triumphant return he got the medallion out of him. Should that have returned him to his own time? Because when Evil Danny touches one, he travels _back_ in time, but when Good Danny holds one, he stays in the future? So what did he do with the medallion? He just left it in the future? He couldn't have returned it to Clockwork, because he doesn't see Clockwork again until _after_ his family gets blown up (but not really because Clockwork is a cheater). He couldn't be carrying it with him because then he wouldn't be able to return to his present. The Fenton Thermos can contain ghost energies, but then Evil Dan gets sucked into the thermos, so he could've just used it to escape back to his future if Good Danny had put it in there for storage. So is Vlad still alive, or did Danny have to kill him in the cave? There's an angst/comfort fic waiting to happen. Maybe he left it there and Clockwork went to the future and brought it back. Or maybe it's still in the future, and old, repentant future Vlad is going to use it to go back into the past and try to make things different? Who knows? Lots of loose ends in _The Ultimate Enemy_...

Clockwork shook his head, deciding he didn't really care about any of that. He was the master of time.

"I guess I should stop now, I have a schedule to kee- oh my."

Danny Phantom was a red and green bloody blob, still banging into the bell. The bell itself, and a large part of the surrounding wall and floor were stained with his human and ghost juices. No, not _those_ kinds of juices, Terra Patrick.

Tucker and Sam, who had been given a medallion, sat holding each other on the floor, unable to tear their eyes away from the gruesome scene above them. Danny's vitreous fluids had splattered them too, and they were both crying.

"Clockwork!" One of the Observers was here! That meant the other one wasn't far behind! _God,_ they were both annoying!

"You have fixed the future! Tell us, how did you go about- oh GOD!"

The Observers began panicking. Tucker and Sam began crying harder.

"You told me _'To save the future, Danny Phantom must perish!'_ and that's what I did."

"I didn't mean murder the lad!" One of the Observers shouted.

"Oh man, what are we gonna do?" The other was looking around the place nervously. "WITNESSES!" He sped towards Sam and Tucker, grabbing the scythe from the wall on his way down.

"TIME OUT."

Everyone froze, except for Sam and Tucker, who had reverted back to quiet sobs. They were wearing Time Medallions. Damn things. Danny, however, was still banging against the bell. He had been the entire time. Clockwork mumbled something and pressed a button on his staff. Danny's lifeless body fell to the ground and _splashed_. Sam and Tucker were now soaked in the bodily fluids of their once-living best friend. They stopped crying, but Tucker threw up. Clockwork frowned. The cleaning bill for this month was going to be _ridiculous_.

"You two," Clockwork said and pointed to Sam and Tucker. "Take off my Time Medallions."

The teenagers couldn't move. Clockwork frowned and did this weird thing where he duplicated himself. But it was weird because it wasn't like how Vlad does it or how Danny . . . _would have eventually learned_ to do it. The copy just appeared. But it wasn't an exact copy; it was like Clockwork in caveman garb. It looked silly, but apparently Clockwork can make copies of himself wearing neat little outfits from different times. Why does he need to do that? He's the master of all time, he doesn't need duplicates. In any case, the caveman Clockwork (or Cavework as he will be referred to) retrieved the medallions from Sam and Tucker. Immediately the two froze in time. Cavework placed the medallions on the table, and then Clockwork recalled him or dissipated him or however ghosts get rid of their duplicates.

Clockwork opened a portal back home for Sam and Tucker and pushed them through with his staff before closing it again. He wasn't sure exactly where the portal was – Sam's room or something. They'd be fine.

"Time in."

The Observer with the scythe crashed into the ground, sliding into the wall thanks to the glowing blood and ectoplasm on the floor. He threw up too, or whatever people with eyeballs for heads did when they threw up. It was gross.

"You on the floor, grab a mop. And you there in the sky, get me a garbage bag."

"What are we going to do?"

"We've got to dump this body somewhere. If Tony finds out I murdered another teenager he's going to evict me and I just got all my stuff moved in. Here are my keys, when you get him in the bag put him in the trunk and start the car. I'll be out in a minute."

"What are you going to do?"

Clockwork had already turned around and was heading away. He stopped and turned around again. "I'm calling the cleaning lady. She can remove the stains after the other guy mops up the worst of it."

"You think she'll keep quiet?"

Clockwork frowned. "That's a legitimate concern." He pulled out a pair of sunglasses. "This is a pretty . . ." he put the sunglasses on, "_ghastly scene_."

_**Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.E.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.H.!!!!!!**_

* * *

Sorry everyone.


End file.
